Quick update catch-up

My culinary desires have changed quite a bit since becoming prego and one of the things that I used to love is coffee. While I don't really care for it much these days, every so often a little taste hits the spot. So here I am enjoying a baby-sized cup of joe. I love that little cup! Too bad I have since broken it. :(

Some pictures over the 4th of July weekend during a stop for lunch at Mom and Dad's on the way up to Fergus Falls. I was about 16 weeks in this picture. I will note that when we arrived in Fergus, Sally's friend Wendy said hello by exclaiming, "wow, Heidi, you really ARE quite pregnant, aren't you!?" Huh. Thanks Wendy. :)
Our first tri-generational pic! Grandma, momma, and baby
Tim and I have been trying to squeeze in some fun dates this summer before our limitless freedom to go out is hindered by baby. No that we actually go out that much, but anyway, we are actually making an effort to do so these days. Tim planned this one, dinner at Conga (delicious latin tasties!), a walk in St. Anthony, a movie with friends (Iron Man - excellant) and ice cream at Izzy's (gotta love the Izzy scoop). All told, a wonderful evening! We got mango margaritas, but don't worry, mine was virgin! So tasty.

Team Chase!
My papa on the 4th of July, looking stylin' and going to be a grandpa!
It would seem that I got my mother's coloring, huh?

It's time for Tim to post about football

The football preseason has begun. I do not plan to watch any preseason games, but I am getting excited for the Broncos first regular season game in exactly a month. First, I must lament the loss of three of my favorite Broncos. Mike Bell, an undrafted rookie running back who played fantastic two seasons ago, was released last month. I liked the way he played and put the team first. He signed with the Houston Texans and I wish him the best. Rod Smith, the best undrafted wide receiver ever to play in the NFL, hung up his cleats and embraced retirement last month. He was the personification of a professional and showed a generation how to play football right. Finally, John Lynch, a safety who was always good for a borderline legal hit once a game, realized that he would not play as much this year and asked for his release from the team. If he cannot find another team that will promise to let him start, he will likely retire and take a job in sports broadcasting. He has been a model citizen during his career and I hope he enjoys his life after sports. I give these three players a mile high salute.

Some time in October, the Jets will be sporting a 1-3 record, Favre will have 2 touchdown passes and 6 interceptions, and he will be lying on his back after his 6th sack of the game. The New York fans will be booing him and, like Will Arnett’s character on Arrested Development, he will say “I have made a HUGE mistake.” In the meantime, the Packers will have a 1-3 record, Aaron Rodgers will have just thrown his 3rd interception against a division rival, and Packer fans everywhere are smashing beer bottles against their foreheads. The Packers coach and general manager will look at each other and say, “We have made a HUGE mistake.” That’s good drama.

I love Heidi more than I love football.

Keeping busy!

It seems that just when you think things are slowing down a bit, new things come along with full force. We've got family visiting, friends visiting and 2 new roomates, so Tim and I have stayed busy! With taking the house off the market, we are busy doing some looking, and a lot of praying, for great new tenants. And the Lord reminds us of His faithful in that endeavor often. We are also preparing for a visit to see our ministry team in Senegal, which is SO exciting. We are so blessed to have this opportunity to survey the land and to catch a greater vision of God's personal calling on our lives to minister the Gospel among the Wolof.

We will be gone the last 2 weeks of August and covet your prayers. We acknowledge that we are headed into enemy domain, where the great deceiver has been hard at work for many years establishing his authority. But we also know that we go in God's will, under His covering, with His authority, and with the blessing of His annointing. So pray for us in these coming weeks. That God would prepare us for what we will see and experience, that our spiritual eyes would be opened, and that we would get a representative taste of the spiritual environment where we are moving our family.

That sounds a bit heavy, I know! But as we grow closer to departure, we are both excited and sobered to what we are walking into in this new phase of ministry. God has Kingdom plans for the Wolof and we are thrilled to be a part of them!!!

Bella

This time I, Heidi, am doing a movie review! I know, I know, we're switching things up a bit. Over the weekend, we rented the movie Bella. Wow, it was great. If you rent one movie all summer, I think it would do your soul well to rent this one. I think it's an independent film......I never remember director's names, but either way, it was a great film. It got a lot of press in Catholic circles for it's strong pro-life theme, and I believe it received good reviews as well. The story was touching, the acting was top-notch, and the message was solid. If you view life and family as precious, go see this movie. The main guy in the movie made it big in Central America as a soap star. He re-discovered his faith through the Catholic church and wanted to make a movie with a worthwhile message that was honoring to his faith. Mission accomplished. I almost want to say that if you didn't like this movie, something is wrong with you...but that's offensive. So I won't say it. :)

Just go rent the movie! Movies like this deserve our time and money. You're gonna rent a movie anyway, make it this one. More movies like this are certainly what we need these days!

It's getting hot out there. . .

We have entered the dog days of summer. I don't actually know what that means, but I think I sound smart when I say it. The next few days are supposed to be hot in MN. That means mid 90s with high humidity. It would not be so bad if either of our cars had working AC. The worst part of my day is driving home from work in traffic while sweating profusely. Heidi usually does not mind heat like that, but now that she is pregnant it bothers her. The ironic thing about this is that next month we are heading to Senegal to visit our team. In the hottest part of the year. We are so excited to see our team that I guess we will just find a way to deal with it. Details about the trip with be forthcoming, but we will be gone for almost 2 weeks. I just hope I don't melt.

Movie review: The Dark Knight

The new Batman movie came with a lot of hype. Is there any way that a movie with that much hype can live up to it? On Saturday afternoon, Heidi and I went to find out. In my humble opinion, it more than lived up to the hype. The Dark Knight is awesome. Comic book movies are seldom this smart and certainly not as well done. The entire film I was on the edge of my seat, caught up in the intensity. Just as a warning, it is dark and intense all the way through but the violence is bloodless and the scariest stuff is implied. Heath Ledger’s Joker was incredible. Denying the audience a back story on the Joker was a great move and made his character even more menacing. At two and a half hours, the movie could have been trimmed down a bit, but that is really the only thing I could find to complain about. Leave the kids at home for this one, but The Dark Knight is the best movie of the summer and possibly the best comic book film of all time.

Great scenes: The Joker ambushes the police caravan.
The Joker’s introduction to the mob bosses (the disappearing pencil trick).
Batman’s visit to Hong Kong.

Great line: Lucius Fox: Let me get this straight. You think that your employer, one of the richest men in the world, is spending his nights running around the city beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands? And your plan is to blackmail him? Good luck with that.

Rollergirls on the Greenway

On Tuesday night, Heidi and I took a walk on the Midtown Greenway. We often see unique/strange things while walking on the Greenway and Tuesday night was no different. The first odd thing was a group of Rollergirls. It was a group of women, and a man who appeared to be their coach, on old school rollerskates cruising down the Greenway in single file. They all had colorful clothing, 1980’s style tube socks, and moved at a pretty good pace. The next odd thing was a group of kids in their early teens that appeared to be acting out some kind of Fight Club. (If you’ve seen that movie, you can probably picture it.) There was no actual fighting, just boys talking big and challenging each other. When we walked back to where they had been, no one was there. We did not call the police since they seemed more intent on challenging each other than actually fighting. The last odd thing was a guy on a huge Unicycle. He was moving really fast and the wheel was about twice the size of a normal Unicycle. He appeared to be enjoying himself. Ah, the things we get to enjoy living in the city.

I played the new Disc Golf course at Minnehaha Falls yesterday with Nic, Jer, Peter, and Eric. It is the easiest course I have ever played, but we had fun. I had two terrible holes, but still finished at -2 after 20 holes. That’s how easy that course is. I would like to play it again.

Heidi and I were happy to welcome back our friend Peter Bodurtha (I may have spelled that wrong) back from his ten month stint in Russia. He and his fiancé, Julie Grazier, joined Heidi and I for Thai food last night. We went to Chai Thai, a tiny restaurant in the Cedar Riverside area, near the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The place was nice, the company was excellent and the food was good. In my quest to find the best Pad Thai in the Twin Cities, I give Chai Thai a slightly above average grade. The service was great, the food quality was good, but the amount of food versus the price was lacking. I don’t like feeling hungry when I finish my meal and that is what happened. No one else seemed to have that problem, so maybe I eat too much. Anyway, we are glad to have Peter and Julie (Petulie) back and are excited for what will surely be a memorable time when they get married next month.

Family Time

Once again, I am running a bit behind on posting pics of all our adventures, but here's a few to satisfy the masses or whoever it is that actually reads our blog!! Our nephew, Carver, in his clip-on tie for church!

Sadly, he took it off right before wegot to church.

Us at Minnehaha Falls. It was a beautiful day.

Here's my blog premier of wearing maternity clothes!!

Everyone who was visiting us :)

Tim and his sisters. The sibs.

We had a great time that day, got some Chipotle after church and everyone ate their ENTIRE burrito! It was a sight to behold. I was rueing that decision later on, but by then it was too late. We hiked around a bit at Minnehaha, got a bit muddy, but enjoyed the georgeous weather. Played at the park a bit and got ice cream for dinner :)

Intentional community and urban chickenry

Last night Heidi and I spent some time with our friends Andrew and Sarah and their cute, happy, baby, Ezekiel. They are friends from church who live in intentional community in a house not far from ours in South Minneapolis. They live with two single people and a married couple and are part of a loose association of other similar houses where people live in similar fashion. They see intentional community as more than simply living in a structure with people, but also sharing their lives with them. It is a counter cultural idea that goes against American ideals, but I like it. After dinner, we joined them at a meeting of other like minded people where there was fellowship and discussion about how to live and share lives with people in community. There were lots of dreadlocks, body piercings, and tattoos (making me feel very preppy in comparison) and we enjoyed our time with them. Most everyone lives in our neighborhood and it was great to know that there are people like them all around us. Many of them attend a church called the Salvage Yard, which I had never heard of before last night. We got some great ideas for our house and some fantastic leads on people to live in our place.

Right before dinner last night, Sarah went out in their back yard and returned with three eggs. Joking, I asked her if she had chickens in their back yard. She replied that, yes, there were four chickens in their yard. Of course, then I went out and saw them for myself. I am not used to seeing chickens in our neighborhood. Later, at the meeting, a woman offered to share her knowledge of “urban chickenry” to anyone who wants to learn. I guess it is what it sounds like. Maybe someday we will participate in “urban chickenry”.

Since this post is about living in community and how we plan to set that up for our house, it is probably clear that we are taking our house off the market. We did not want to go with property management, but selling our house involved losing a lot of money and that did not seem wise to us. We felt that the Lord released us from selling for the time being and are now actively seeking people to live with us until we depart for Africa. The downstairs tenants are moving out and we are moving downstairs. We intend to have a house where people desire to live in community and we will use a property management company when we leave for Africa. So, please send anyone our way who wants to live in community in the city.

Updates and random thoughts

I (Tim) played one of, if the not best, round of Disc Golf ever on Saturday morning. There were six of us that got up early and barely beat the rain at the Bethel University course. The players were Dan, Brian, Phil, Grant, Dave (my sister Amy’s fiancé), and myself. The scores were pretty tight until the end. On hole #9 I took a five and thought that my goose was cooked, however, two long par putts later and I found myself in the lead with four holes left. With some good fortune and a couple great drives I ended up winning the round. I never beat those guys, so it was particularly sweet.

We got in some good family time this weekend. On Saturday night we had both my sisters and staying at our house, which was a little tight. After church on Sunday, we all ate at Chipotle and spent some time at Minneahaha Falls. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. We will post the pictures later. It is good to be with family.

I finally joined Facebook. It is a good way to keep track of people and I have already made contact with people I have not seen in years. It is a slick site.

A couple weeks ago Heidi and I were in the mood for a fun movie, but instead ended up with Fool’s Gold. It is a forgettable movie where the previews showed all the funny parts. Seriously, there was not a single joke in the movie that was not already revealed in the preview. It was directed by the guy who made Hitch, but it was an inferior movie in every way.

I sure do love Heidi. Especially with her special glow.

Tim's niece made a new friend

My Niece, Christi “the” Mann, is spending the summer with her father in Nashville, TN. In the fall she will be a Junior at Grace College in northern Indiana. Since she does not know anyone in Nashville, and the church her Dad and Grandmother attend did not result in making new friends, she signed up for an Improv class. The first friend she made in the class was a woman who is a few years older than her named Rebecca. Christi’s new friend casually mentioned that she had moved to the U.S. from Australia when she was a teenager and has recorded a few Christian CDs. Since everyone in Nashville has recorded a few CDs, Christi did not think much of it. After a few weeks of performing in skits together and enjoying hanging out with her new friend, Christi decided that something seemed familiar about her. After checking the internet, she discovered that her new friend is Rebecca St. James, a well know Christian singer/songwriter. I give props to Rebecca St. James for being so friendly and sweet to a young woman who was new to town. I was already a fan of her music (I even gave Christi one of her CDs for Christmas a few years ago) and now I am a fan of her as a person.

Mpls in the summertime

One thing we love about living in South Mpls is the lakes. It is glorious being so close to the major lake chain: Isles, Calhoun, Harriet, and Nokomis. We walked a lake three times this week and it was wonderful. Tim and I have some of our best conversations when we walk, something about the fresh air and beautiful surroundings gets our mental juices flowing! This afternoon we did Nokomis and it was lovely. Perfect weather for trying out new sun hat. Caribou was giving out free drinks today from 3-4, but we didn't make it over there. Oh well.

Memorial Day Camping

I am a little behind on posting, but here are some pictures from our super fun camping trip to St. Croix State Park over the long weekend. The Watsons are from church and we became fast friends! Sadly, they are moving to Singapore tomorrow. We are really going to miss them!! Katie and Julia and our nephew, Carver

Chases and Watsons

Chases and Lundholms, Tim's sister

Lundholms and Watsons...it was a regular photo shoot!!

Sally got a ton of marshmellow smeared in her hair when she swatted at a mosquito not knowing the mallow was all over her hand. It was pretty funny. Sorry Sal! Obviously, this picture doesn't convey the real humor. It was funny. But if I have to tell you that, what's the point?

Phil and Amy frying up some tasty bacon for breaky!

Me and my girls!

Hanging out at the playground. The bugs were really bad that weekend, which was a big bummer. It was worth it though, to make some memories before they ship out! We're gonna miss you guys, see you at Christmas!

A sad post

Yesterday a dear friend of Heidi's family passed away. Don Swenson, who is survived by his wife, Angela, suffered heart failure at their home. I believe he was in his late 40s. He was a jovial man who provided Heidi and I with some great stories and he will be greatly missed. Please be in prayer for his wife and for Heidi and her family. They are taking this pretty hard. We are encouraged that we know that he is with Jesus, whom Don served his entire life. Welcome home, Don. We will miss you.

we love weddings!

In May, we were blessed to attend 2 weddings: Steve and Emily Mattson, friends from church and Joe and Julia Novik, a dear friend of mine from high school. Ju and I both went to the U and now they are both Dr.s in New York City.Me and Julia

Julia looking stunning in her gown. They had a lovely outdoor wedding at a great place in Stillwater.

Her very interesting cake decorated by another friend from high school. Yep, those are trout and cattails.

Enjoying our kiddie cocktails at Steve and Emily's wedding. I don't actually have any pictures of the happy couple.....We had a great time at this wedding and wooped it up on the dance floor.

Nate aka Jeff Foxworthy and his crazy 'stash.

Good times with friends.

Another newly wed couple, Ben and Brenda, having a ball!

Strange sights, summer in the city. . .

I have lived in the city long enough that not much surprises me. Every once in a while, though, I’ll look out the window and call Heidi over, saying, “you have to see this.” We had seen some kids earlier playing in a puddle on the edge of our driveway, right by the alley. It can be 3 or 4 inches deep after a heavy rain. The kids were riding their bikes through the puddle and washing their feet in it. A while after they got bored and moved on, I moved our trash bins and recycling containers into that spot for the next morning’s pickup. Not long after that, I heard the sound of kids playing again. This time they were using the puddle as a wading pool and had moved our trash cans and recycling bins into the middle of the alley. After coating themselves in mud and splashing each other, they headed back down the alley, leaving our stuff in the middle. As I again put the cans and bins in the proper place for the next morning, I thought about how people who live outside of the city never get to see things like this. They sure are missing out.

Now for some football news. Denver Broncos running back and father of nine children with nine women (none of whom he married), Travis Henry, has been released from the team. Last season it was hard to cheer for him knowing what kind of guy he was. Now I can cheer for the Broncos starting running back without that tinge of guilt. Good for Coach Shanahan for getting rid of the problem children and making room for the good guys.

Last week’s season finale of LOST was great. With LOST and The Office on summer break, there is officially nothing worth watching on TV, which is good, since our set is old and doesn’t work very well any more.

The weekend and Prince Caspian

Heidi and I had a great Memorial Day weekend by camping at St. Croix State Park with family and friends. We spent Friday night by ourselves and the Lundholms (my sister, Sally and her family) and the Watsons (friends from church) joined us from Saturday afternoon until Monday afternoon. The kids from both families played together and even let me play some Freeze Tag with them. The only bummer was the mosquitoes, which considered us a buffet all weekend. I have never seen bugs that bad. I am still scratching the bites two days later. We will post the pictures from the weekend soon.

I have been meaning to post a review of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, but have not had the chance. So, here is my official review: as a movie, it was awesome, but as a book adaption, it was terrible. The directing, photography, effects, and acting were all top notch. The pacing was solid and, overall, I enjoyed it a whole lot. However, they changed some things and added others that I found both unnecessary and irritating. As good as it was, the movie only partially captured the spirit of the book, which is a bummer. I hope the Dawn Treader is better. I love that book. Please leave comments with your thoughts on the movie.

Just for fun, here is a link to the Will Smith superhero movie, Hancock, due out in July: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809801452/video/7633208

I love my Heidi an awful lot.

Girls weekend up north

At the end of April/start of May, I skipped out on Tim a bit and went to Seattle and then right away up North with the girls. Poor guy, it was in that weekend that he broke the tip off his finger. Don't worry, he's ok and the finger is looking pretty good.

We had some great time of fellowship up at Candace's grandparents "cabin."A little hiking.

A little shooting! My first time. Check me out.

Here's the "cabin." HUGE! Good times. Lots of food, laughter, and fun.

Visit to Seattle

Here are some pictures from my visit to Seattle to see the Leberts.We went to Pike's Place Market about everyday!

After church at Mars Hill on Sunday. A very interesting church service....

The Fremont Troll! As seen in the movie Ten Things I Hate About You. Great flick.

We got dolled up in Amanda's clothes and went window shopping downtown. It's good to get in some girly time. This is at dinner that night with Ed. It was a great trip, lots of girl bonding. Plus, we're in Seattle! I love Seattle.

Prayer ministry and family time

Our church, Bethel Christian Fellowship (www.bcfnations.org) has a cool prayer ministry that I think has been mentioned before in this blog. Heidi got involved with it soon after we started attending BCF, but I always had an excuse why the Lord had not called me to that particular ministry. About a month or two ago I felt like it was time to get involved. There was no dramatic change in my heart, I guess I finally ran out of excuses and decided to obey. I am glad that I did. Over the past month I have been used by God to encourage several people and I feel that I received a blessing as well. I have been on the receiving end of these prayer appointments three times and was always blessed by the experience. If you feel that something like this would benefit you, then let Heidi and I know. It is not just for people from BCF. In fact, many appointments are for people from other churches. It is always confidential and encouraging.

Heidi and I had a lot of family time this past weekend. On Saturday we spent the day with some of my family. My former brother in law, Walter, drove up from Nashville with my niece, Christi, and picked up my nephew, Tim, and his wife, Amanda in Warsaw, IN on the way. We all met up in Dresser, WI, where my sister Sally and her family live. The visit was over way too fast, but we had a good time. My family is scattered pretty far, so it is great to see them. Then on Sunday, after breakfast with everyone and church, we spent the rest of the day with Heidi’s parents. They always spoil us with good food and Sunday was no different. We took a walk by the Mississippi River and mostly just hung out. The weather was not all that great on either day, but we had a good weekend.

Movie Review: Iron Man

Movies that are based on comic books are hit and miss. Some are terrible (Daredevil, Electra, Batman & Robin), some are mediocre (the Fantastic Four films and X-Men 3), and only a few are terrific (Spider-Man 2 and X-Men 2). Iron Man is outstanding, equal with Batman Begins in sheer awesomeness. Taking a second tier superhero and making one of the best comic book films of all time is an amazing feat. All the important factors are in place: good acting, a well paced, character driven story, and stuff blowing up. Unlike many super hero origin stories, (yes, Fantastic Four I mean you) where the heroes complain about how cursed they are, Tony Stark embraces his new power in a way that most people in the audience would. He also blows stuff up. I don’t ask for much with action movies and Iron Man more than delivers. Oh yeah, stick around for a great bonus scene after the end credits.

Best scenes: his escape from captivity, the first time he takes the armor into combat, and the final battle. (Pretty much the scenes where he blows up stuff.)

Best quote:
Soldier: Is it cool if I get a picture with you?
Tony Stark: Yes. Yes it's very cool. I don't wanna see this on your myspace page. Please, no gang signs. No, throw it up. I'm kidding.

An eventful last week

Last week Heidi and I attended the Annual Meetings for the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, of which our church is a member. It went from Tuesday evening to Friday afternoon and was pretty packed the whole time. We were a part of the prayer ministry and spend the afternoons praying for pastors and missionaries, which was great. The speakers that came were outstanding. The highlight was Carter Conlon of Times Square Church in NYC. (The church started by David Wilkerson, famous for The Cross and the Switchblade.) Conlon’s talk was fantastic. We made some connections with churches in MN that we will visit and even got an invitation by a church in Seattle. This short summary did not do justice to how encouraging those few days were.

On Saturday Eric and I ventured out to Bethel University to play Disc Golf. We played the 9 hole course five times. The temperature was about 34 degrees, the wind was crazy strong, there was mud everywhere, and snow fell part of the time. Our scores were terrible, but we had a great time.

Later Saturday night I played Diaper Wars with Jer, Brian, Nate, and Grant. It was awesome. The only bummer was at one point I was trying to run, duck, and throw a diaper when I slammed my hand into a barrier. It hurt something fierce, but I played for a couple more hours. On Monday I got an X-ray and discovered that I fractured the bone in the fingertip of my right ring finger. Yesterday I saw a hand specialist who said that there is no tendon damage and it will fully heal in a month or so. That means no disc golf for a few weeks. Bummer.

The showings that I wrote about in a previous entry have not resulted in an offer yet. In fact, we have not heard anything since the showings. That is a little disappointing, but we still trust God to sell our house.

Heidi has been in Seattle since Saturday morning visiting Ed and Amanda and she is finally coming home this afternoon. I miss my Sweet Baboo and am excited for her return.

You'll never believe it

But I enjoyed a musical!!!! I know, I know, a miracle. Last weekend, Tim and I went with some friends to see Linsey in a wonderful rendition of Godspell that she was in. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't really care for theater productions unless they are really good. Otherwise, I find them ridiculously embarassing. But this one was really good and I really enjoyed it. Great job, Lins!

Yay, it's starting!

What a great show! Candace and I were there as well, but behind the camera

A second showing

Today we had a second showing on our house. It is only the second time this has happened since we put it on the market. We are praying that an offer will follow. Our trust in God to sell our house has not waned and we are hopeful that this will result in the sale. Please join us in prayer.

So funny!

So today I'm out running errands. A little stop at Saver's to drop off some donations and then on to the bank. I pull into the drive through and send my checks through the magical zipper dipper into the bank. I turn down my music and wait for my receipt. A moment later the lady inside greets me, well hello, I say. Then she tells me that this bank is now the Franklin Bank, no longer WellsFargo. I bank at WF. It hasn't been WF for over a month. Whoa. Time to switch back to caffeinated coffee!!! I had to laugh. Everyone inside was laughing too. So I drove back to Saver's.....since the new WF is right next door. I had driven right past it 5 minutes before. Whoa.

Coming home

Late Wednesday night I (Tim) was on an airplane returning from meetings for the NMDP in Charlotte, NC. A young woman was sitting next to me wearing military fatigues. We did not converse until the end of the flight. (I slept most of the flight. I hope I did not snore.) Right before we were leaving the plane I asked her if she was going home. She said that she was returning home to Mankato after a year in Afghanistan. I told her thank you for her service and then her turn came to leave the plane. A few minutes later as I walked up to the baggage claim I saw the woman’s family mob her. Her mother approached her at a run and did not let up the hug for a solid five minutes even when other family members tried to get in. I felt a wave of emotion cover me as I watched the reunion. As I processed the interaction, I thought about Heaven. The Bible makes it clear that when I stand before God and hear him say “well done, good and faithful servant”, that will be the best moment of all time. The God of the universe running to me and welcoming me into Heaven is something I cannot imagine being worthy of, but that is what will happen. Fortunately it is not about my worth, but His grace. How cool is that? It is one of the many reasons I am a Christian.

God's faithfulness

Tim and I have some friends who have adopted 3 beautiful little boys and we have known the family about 2 1/2 years. When we met them, they had just moved to MN from West Africa. One of the boys needed more adequate treatment as he was HIV positive (from his birth mom). About this time in our lives, God was taking us deeper into an understanding of how He views illness and how we can pray with confidence for His will to be done concerning that. So we started praying for complete healing for this little guy. He is real cute by the way. Real cute. He even has red hair :)

We prayed and we prayed. My parents joined us in praying over him and declaring health into his tiny little body. One day, as I was walking and praying I received a picture of a quiver of arrows. And the Lord was saying, "This one's ours. This victory belongs belongs to the Kingdom of God. This boy's healing is going to be one of the arrows in this quiver. And when the enemy comes to intimidate and steal, we can hold this arrow up and say, remember him? He's ours. And Christ healed him."

I tell you what, I was sold. So we continued to pray. A couple weeks ago, we saw our friends and got an update on their son. The last time they had been in to see the Dr. (an Indian Hindu Dr.) the HIV was undetectable in his body. I'm sorry, did I hear you right? Did you say undetectable?

So Mom asked the Dr., "does that mean it's gone and he's healed?"

Dr. replies, or rather stammers, "well, no, I mean, you can't get rid of HIV, it just means it's, uh, it's, uh, undetectable for right now.....um, if he went off meds, it would be seen."

To that I say, whatever, God heals. GOD HEALS!

So we celebrated. We rejoiced. The next day we were at my parents house and man oh man did we praise God! We rejoiced in His goodness and mercy. Maybe you're a skeptic and are thinking, it's still there, it's just undetectable. We believe 100% that our faithful Jesus healed this little boy from HIV.

I share this because the more people who hear and can believe and rejoice, the more glory God gets.

This, my friends, is what we want to see more of in Senegal. We want to see God sweep in in His splendor and blow the socks off the Wolof people. They are ready for it and so are we.

A time of waiting.

Yesterday Heidi and I took a walk down the Greenway to celebrate a 44 degree, sunny day in Minneapolis. We like watching the various runners and bikers pass us as we walk. I did wish there was a restroom somewhere on the route, but we are fortunate to have such a nice path so close to our house. Anyway, as we were walking, we talked about the odd place that we are in our lives. As we wait for our house to sell and the rest of our support to come in, we are in a place where we cannot move ahead with our lives in MN, but cannot yet start our lives in Africa. Don’t get me wrong, we are still enjoying being around friends and family and are involved in some things, but we cannot really start anything new right now. Once our house sells, everything will move quickly, but until that time, everything seems to move slowly. This can lead to feelings of frustration and helplessness. After our walk, I felt prompted to read from Deuteronomy 8. In that passage, the Lord speaks through Moses and reminds the Israelites about how He sustained them in the wilderness to prepare them for the entry into the Promised Land. I am sure that at the time the Israelites felt frustrated and helpless as they were stuck in the desert, even though the Lord protected them and supplied their needs. The Lord is sustaining us during this time and we are learning to have greater faith. When everything is in place and we depart for Africa, we will be better off for having had this experience. I guess that is how the Christian life works.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM

Today is Tim's 35th birthday! I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband. The Lord truly sent me a gift when He brought Tim into my life. I was independent, strong and secure as a single woman and I wasn't looking for a husband. But God knew what I needed and shortly after I entered into what has now been a very challenging 5 years of physical pain, the Lord brought Tim along. Just in time to be a tremendous support to and advocate for me. So I praise God for Tim and I love him so much. Happy birthday, baby.

Happy Birthday, Heidi!!!

Today is Heidi's birthday. Be sure to leave a comment to wish her a Happy Birthday.

I sure am blessed by my Sweet Baboo and we were not married, I would totally date her. Love you, baby.

Settlers tourney

Over the weekend, starting Friday night with two and ending Sunday with one game, Tim and I fit in 5 games of Settlers whenever we could and I am pleased to say that I crushed him 4-1. If you know how much Tim has played this game in the past 10 years, then you know what an accomplishment this is! He always tells people that his social life before he met me was pretty much comprised of playing Settlers with his buddies. And he was even playing pretty hardcore in this quest to beat me. It was fun. Well, it was probably more fun for me. I figure it's a compliment to him. With how much he has played, it's only right for his wife to know how to as well. :)

Back to the blog

It has been quite some time since I have posted. I have been temping and I got a full time assignment about a month ago and haven't blogged since. Well, I'm back!! The assignment is now over so I have a lot more time to blog. I was working at MyTana, a manufacturing company in St. Paul that makes equipment for sewer cleaning, like cable machines, cameras, jetter hoses, leak detectors, etc. I know all about it now! Ask me anything!! It was a pretty crazy job, I had some unique conversations with plumbers of all varieties to put it mildly.

So yesterday was my last day and boy did I get a wonderful send-off. My boss came to tell me at about 10:30 that it was going to be my last day and for the next 20 minutes everyone huddled around my desk to say goodbye, wish me well in Africa and say they would miss me while I packed up my desk. They even gave me a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant! I was a temp! Crazy sweet of them. They also loaded me up with MyTana gear.....

In case you can't see that real well, the t-shirts say: "show that turd who's boss!" and "nice pipes!" A little plumber humor for ya. And then there's 2 hats as well. It was a really interesting place to work, the highlight was definitely the people. I am really going to miss them! Thanks MyTana!!

Tim's male bonding weekend

The Man Night on Friday was fun. We started with board games and moved on to Diaper Wars once the group using the Fellowship Hall left. Since there were six of us for Diaper Wars we did not have subs and played for over two hours without much of a break. In particular, I enjoyed the one on one game where the winner got to stay put and the other players cycled through. On Saturday I was really sore. In fact, I am still sore. It was worth it. Special thanks to Nicolas for opening the church for us. Robbie, Chris, Jer, Jimmie, and I had a great time.

On Sunday, the male bonding continued when Grant and Mark came over for a game of Axis and Allies: Europe. It is a board game where players assume the role of the countries involved in WWII and use the resources and weapons to defeat the other players. Grant played Germany, Mark played Russia, and I played England and the USA. The game is set so that when equal players match up, the Allies usually win. Grant played a masterful game and it looked like he might get the win when he made one crucial mistake and Mark destroyed his entire air force in one battle. At that point, the game was impossible for Grant to win and he conceded defeat. Heidi could not understand the draw to a game that took about seven hours to play, but we sure did have fun.

Heidi enjoyed seeing her friend Am this weekend and hanging out with girls from church on Sunday and I enjoyed my male bonding weekend, but my favorite activity is still anything that involves my Sweet Baboo. Spending time with Heidi is still my favorite pastime.

The 2008 Disc Golf season has begun!

On Friday, right after work, Eric and I (Tim) opened the 2008 Disc Golf season. The air temp was around 31 degrees and the wind was whipping in all directions, but we played. Neither of us had a particularly good round, but we did have fun. It was hard to get footing to throw in the snow and the wind wreaked havoc with our shots, but at the end of the round we agreed that it was good to be back out.

My niece, Christi, was in town the last few days for her Spring Break. While most of her friends were either at home or in a warmer climate, she came to visit her family in MN and WI. She spent a couple days my sister, Sally, and Heidi and I got some quality time on Saturday and Tuesday. Christi was blessed to get the Chase family sense of humor and she even writes a humor column for the newspaper at Grace College. We enjoyed her visit.

While Christi was here yesterday Heidi and I took her on shopping trip to Steve and Barry’s. It is a clothing store where everything costs $8.95. Everything from t-shirts and hats to jeans and leather jackets cost $8.95. Some of their t-shirts contain messages that communicate that you have no class, but I scored two pairs of cargo pants that will serve me quite well in Africa. It’s a good place for clothes if you live on a tight budget.

On Friday night I am putting together a Man’s Night. If you are in the Twin Cities and you are a man, you should come. We will start with board games and move on to Diaper Wars. Drop me a line for more details.

I sure do love Heidi.

All he was really wanted to say was "why should the devil have all the good music?"

The man who is credited as creating the Christian rock genre of music passed away a few days ago. Larry Norman was a brilliant musician who lived an eventful life. As a rock and roll fan, I (Tim) am grateful to Norman for taking the friendly fire of other Christians while sticking to his conviction that the Devil should not have all the good music. A whole lot of good music has been created by people who followed Norman’s lead. He is jamming with Jesus now.

This afternoon, if the weather holds up, I will start the Disc Golf season off at Acorn Park. Eric agreed to brave temps around 30 degrees to play. I’m pretty excited.

Some friends blessed us big time by praying for us last night. Thanks, friends.

Heidi is the cutest of all time.

A working woman

Heidi is a working woman again. She took a temp job while we wait for our house to sell. I will let her tell post the details of the job. She is learning an awful lot about plumbing supplies right now.

Here is a link to a documentary that looks interesting. Click here to watch the trailer: http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php Ben Stein hosts the doc about how Intelligent Design is not allowed to be taught in America. It is set to open in April and if it plays in MN we are planning to go.

The Roseville 4 theater (or Roseville stick-to-the-floor theater) is closing at the end of March. I have seen more movies there than any other theater. It was a great place to watch a movie if you could find a seat that was not broken and get your feet unstuck from the spilled soda on the floor. I’ll miss it.

Good season of LOST so far. Last night’s surprise at the end was awesome. We did not see it coming. As usual there were more questions and not many answers.

A Legend retires

I know football season is over, but I must say my piece about a Broncos legend. Rod Smith, one of the all time great receivers in the NFL, not just the Broncos, is likely to retire from football. He was an undrafted player who came up from the practice squad to play in two Super Bowls. Any athlete would do well to emulate his work ethic and drive to excel. Like most of the Broncos nation, I am hoping that he will join the Broncos coaching staff and show the next generation how the game is played.

I love my Ipod. At work I can put on my headphones and jam out while I answer emails or read documents. Today my artists of choice were Pillar and Project 86, while yesterday I listened mostly to Nickel Creek and P.O.D. How did I survive without an Ipod for so long?

Winter still has its icy grip on Minnesota. It was -8 degrees when I went running this morning. Getting a little tired of it, I’ll be honest. I am hoping for a somewhat warm day to start the 2008 Disc Golf season. A sunny, 25 degree day would do the trick.

For Valentine’s Day, Heidi and I took in dinner and a movie. I got to pick the restaurant, so we ate at Quang’s. That place is so good. For the movie, we saw Enchanted at the Riverview Theater. It is a fun, clean movie with some great moments. Not bad for a chick flick. It was just great to be with my Sweet Baboo.

D-War and losing in Settlers

On Saturday morning, while Heidi was working, I picked up D-War (Dragon Wars) from the Redbox. It is a Korean film about some attractive people and an evil serpent and an army of bad guys. I think. The plot did not make a whole lot of sense and they relied on Deux ex Machina to carry their plot so many times that I gave up trying to follow it. The dialog was awful and the actors could have been made of wood. (A minor character is played by the guy who plays Darryl on The Office and that character is exactly like Darryl from The Office.) Despite all that is wrong with the film (including the fact that at no point in the film are there dragons at war), I really enjoyed it. In Hollywood there are so many committees who write scripts that most films that are released are just rehashed movies with different actors and settings. (How many times have you watched a Romantic Comedy and felt that you have seen it before?) The great thing about D-War is that whoever made the film decided to make something that they would enjoy seeing. They figured if a helicopter flying through downtown Los Angles while fighting with a flying beast was cool, and a helicopter fighting two flying beast would be even better, but a helicopter fighting 17 flying beasts would be spectacular. Therefore, while D-War failed to be a good film, at least it failed spectacularly. I give the makers of this film credit for daring to make something great. Hollywood should take notice.

On Saturday night Heidi put together an engagement party for our friend Julie (JG). While the Heidster and the girls were out eating sushi and fondue I went over to Patrick’s place for a few games of the Settlers of Catan. Patty, his sister in law, joined us. Evidently at some point I must have offended the Settlers gods (I don’t really believe in them, don’t worry) because I got destroyed three games in a row. At no point was I competitive the entire night. At least they had fun.

It was horribly cold this weekend. The high for the day on Sunday was -5 degrees. Yesterday when I went running before work it was -7 degrees. This morning it was +6 degrees and it felt great. I wonder how I will feel when it is 115 degrees in Africa. Maybe I’ll miss the sub zero temps. Hmm. Probably not.

Heidi sure is cute.

The Blues

In the Twin Cities, we have a radio station called KTIS that plays the latest (and sometimes super-old and lame) Contemporary Christian Music. The music tends to be of the happy, praise and worship type, which is okay sometimes. However, there are times when I don’t want to listen to happy music, since it does not match my mood. While I am a generally upbeat person, sometimes I need the Blues. My favorite old school Blues rock bands are Rez Band and Red Sea. There is just something about the Blues that can help a person through a tough time. I know it is no accident that in the book of Psalms in the Bible, there are more Psalms of lament than any other style. God, in His endless wisdom, gave us an art form to express ourselves in the tough times. David, a man after God’s own heart, knew tremendous heartbreak, often because of his poor choices. Through his pain he wrote Psalms of lament that always ended with a declaration of his trust in God. Those Psalms encourage us even now, so many years later. I find it so cool that God cares enough about us to give us art to help carry us through hard times. Now, if only I played the guitar.

80's Party

We never posted these sweet pics from the 80's party we went to for our friend Patrick's birthday.You'll notice that Karen's outfit came straight from the the mall scene in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. She was even wearing white shoes. So great.

Wow, we are cute.

A Super Bowl

Last night’s Super Bowl was great. Sandy and Allen Putnam opened their home and offered their food to a small group of football fans. Chad, Ruth, Jer, Amy, and I were blessed by their hospitality. The game itself was the most exciting since the Broncos beat the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII ten years ago. (Don’t anyone say that the Titans/Rams Super Bowl was exciting. It was horribly boring until the end.) The commercials were mostly good, with the FedEx Carrier Pigeons as my favorite. Heidi watched a girly movie with some of her girlfriends and claimed she had more fun than watching the game.

The outcome of the Super Bowl was not at all what I expected. I did not figure the Giants were enough of a team to beat Green Bay in sub-zero temps, let alone the mighty Patriots. My prediction before the game was the Patriots in a blowout. I guess that’s why they play the game. When Manning escaped the sack and completed a long pass with only minutes left in the game, I knew we were witnessing something special. The only downer of the Super Bowl means that we have eight months before another season starts.

lil' bro in WA

This is my brother and his cute wife. I would call him cute too, but I was recently reminded that men don't prefer the term "cute." Plus, he is very furry, as you can see. Their hats match. Darling :)

Back in the 'hood

We are back in our house and it feels good to be home! The place is much more sparce than ever before, i.e. nothing on the walls, but we're down with the minimalistic look.

cute baby, moving annoucement, and Senegal update

This is kind of a long blog, so if you don't read the whole thing, here's my major announcement: we're moving on Saturday and could use some help :) Give us a call if you want to move some boxes from St. Paul to Mpls on Sat. afternoon!!

I realized I never posted any photos of the new addition to our home, baby Corban Paton Carlson. This is him! Wrapped in the sweet blanket I made for him. What a cutie.I know you can't really see him, so if you want a closer look check out the Carlson's blog at www.philthecarl.blogspot.com for many more shots of this little McCutie.

We have loved living with these good friends, what a blessing they have been to us. Living in community has it's moments, but it is a very worthy investment. We feel privileged to have been here to see Corban's arrival up close and personal. And it was a good reality check on having kids for me, he is SO cute, but SO much work. A great blessing for Tim and I has been the opportunity to pray with our roomies, share trials, triumphs, burdens, and blessings.

We are moving back into our house, though. The one we own. The missionaries who were staying there have moved on and we figured we might as well move back in if we're paying the mortgage and all. So this Saturday if you're sitting around thinking, what can I do today? We'll be moving, so come on over! (It's supposed to warm up as well.) We have a couple people to help, 2 small but mighty ladies, so if you're around, give us a call if you can help. It won't take too long, we don't have much stuff at the Carlson's. We have one truck, but could always use another. Thanks, friends!

It is actually a little bitter sweet moving back into the house. We were planning on being headed to Senegal at this point, arriving there in February. Our teammates, Joe and Cara, arrived in Dakar last weekend. The Lord has different plans and different timing for us though, as we wait for our home to sell. There are moments of deep pain and we feel the loss of not being with our team and feeling like we are just waiting...waiting...waiting for movement. There are also moments of assurance, when we know we are in the right place, waiting for God's timing in His perfect will. And He has provided strength as we wait upon Him. Our plans may not have happened, but that's the great thing about our plans versus His plans, He holds time is his hands and overrides our plans when need be! So we are persevering and searching to find His intimate direction at this point in the journey. We trust Him with all that we are and we know we will get to Africa when the timing is right!

girl finds sweet clothes in Mom's basement

I haven't posted in a while, but this one is worth waiting for. Over the holiday, I was looking through some stuff in my parents basement and discovered that Mom had kept a bunch of our baby clothes. Lots of them were made by my grandma and Mom. And they are sweet! It's like little vintage baby clothes!! I snatched 'em up before my little bro could claim them.Check out the overalls and tiny little swimsuit, I wore that!

Grandma maid the kitty pantsuit. My personal fave of this group is the blue halter dress.

I saved the best for last. Check this blue polyester baby housecoat!!! I love it, I wish I could wear it right now. My baby is going to be styling. In case anyone is wondering after this post, no, we are not pregnant. Just excited about baby clothes....I may even take these to Africa....

Tim talks to a cat

This morning when I finished my run, I walked the last quarter of a block to our place. There was a cat standing on the sidewalk unafraid of me as I walked up. I patted him/her (I did not check for gender) on the head and said hello and kept walking. When I was taking out my key to go inside, I realized that my new friend had followed me home and walked up to the door to go inside. After petting him/her a little, I had to explain to kitty that his/her fur made Heidi sick and that he/she could not come in. At that point, I realized that I was talking to a cat, so I went inside.

Like last weekend, Heidi and I have a couple birthday celebrations to attend this weekend. Happy birthday Patrick and Danita! (Happy Late Birthday to Eric and Grant.) We are looking forward to seeing some friends. Since Patrick’s party has a 1980s theme, I am planning to tight roll my pants and wear my Denver Broncos half shirt. I am hoping nobody has a camera.

Tim’s picks for this weekend’s NFL playoff games:
Packers beat Seahawks
Patriots pound Jaguars
Colts mercilessly pummel Chargers
Giants squeak past Cowboys

Tim loves Heidi more than football.

The Holiday season was great.

The Holiday season is over. It was great. I (Tim) love Christmas in a cold weather climate. The snow looks so pretty after it first falls and sitting and staring at the Christmas tree with hot coffee and my hot wife is awesome. Having five days off in an eight day span is also great. However, now it is over. There is only one more Holiday until summer and the long Minnesota winter looms in front of us. The snow that is so pretty and fun in December becomes rock hard and brownish by the end of February. I guess that is what I get for living in Minnesota. At least there are winter sports. Take that all you people who live in warm places! I will enjoy it while I can since we will not see snow in Africa.

Another bummer of January is that for the second year in a row, there is no playoff game for my Denver Broncos. Scoring a victory in the final game was great, but I was a little sad that it had to come at the expense of the Minnesota Vikings. A Vikings playoff game would have been fun, but I guess this was not my year for football. I had a great time with everyone who came to Heidi’s parent’s house for the game. Thanks for the party, Don and Lyn!

There is no movement on our house. It does not want to be sold, evidently. We are still steadfast in our trust in God to sell our house. Thanks to those who have been praying. It will happen. We are certain of that.

Christmas Festivities

We hope you had a great Christmas! There is nothing more wonderful to celebrate than the birth of our Savior. Ours was a little bittersweet, being our last with family for a while, but we had a great time.

We saw Tim's sister on Christmas Eve, here's us with our nephews, and then Tim drove them to the airport as they were off for Arizona to see Kent's parents. Doesn't Arizona sound nice right now?

Here's my brother and his wife, Ellen, on Christmas morning. After a delicious breakfast of belgian waffles, my parents spoiled us yet again, it was great.

We pretty much laid around for 2 days, played games, watched movies, it was great. Although Tim still went running each day. Good job, babe! Then we ventured out for dinner at P.F. Chang's and then on to see a Christmas Carole at the Guthrie. Kinda fancy for folks like us, but we had a really great time and the show was wonderful. The new Guthrie is pretty much amazing! Although I think they made the seats to fit tiny little elves.....

Us at the Guthrie

Mom and Dad

Dan and Ellen

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Prayer Request

I, Heidi, am going to my dentist again tomorrow, Thursday at 1pm, so he can make some more adjustments to my splint and see if we can fix the pain I'm having. We have determined that the headaches I get tend to start in my jaw. Since I received a prophetic word about a year ago to go see this dentist, I've been seeing him for about 10 months and we've tried 2 splints. Please pray specifically for these things:

• Wisdom for Dr. Chad, that God would show him exactly what needs to happen
• That I would be filled with hope in this process
• For God to move on my behalf through the use of technology and training
  

Recently, a friend recalled a story about his wife's physical healing. When she asked people to pray for her she said, don't pray for grace and strength for me to get through this, b/c God is already going to give me that. Pray for complete and miraculous healing and have faith for it.

I would ask the same of you, my dear friends. God has given me tremendous grace for 4 1/2 years and He will continue to do so. Please pray for a physical completion of what He did for me on the cross. My Heavenly Father divinely led me to this dentist and I would love for this to be a testimony of God's power and faithfulness to Dr. Chad and his staff. And I don't want to be in pain anymore :)

And then there were three...

Our friends that we live with, Phil and Emily, are pregnant and last Saturday was Emily's due date. Here is the before picture. This morning/afternoon at about 12:06pm they headed off to the hospital to have baby Carlson!! We are so excited for them and can't wait to meet this new little person. Please pray for a safe and speedy delivery and that Phil's cold will quickly dissipate. So excited!!!!

Bad Broncos and other, more serious thoughts

My Denver Broncos stunk the place up something fierce last night. It would have been an even worse experience if not for Grant and Jen’s hospitality. (Dinner and dessert was great. Thanks, Jen.) The Broncos were clinging to a faint hope of the playoffs with a win, but came out flat and uninspired. The Texans pushed around the Broncos offensive line while sacking Jay Culter at least 4 times, the Broncos had almost no pass rush and could not stop the run, and the special teams constantly gave the Texans a short field and the Broncos a long field. Only Brandon Marshall and Jason Elam gave the Broncos an outstanding performance. Cutler was not bad, but he never had time to throw since Mario Williams was on him all night like ugly on a Raiders fan. With two games left against teams bound for the playoffs the Broncos are likely to finish with the 3rd losing season since I was in high school. At least it will all be over soon.

I have been processing the Sunday murders in Colorado and still cannot wrap my mind around those events. Heidi and I have loose associations with both YWAM and New Life Church and it just does not seem real. My home state has seemed like a magnet for evil in the last few years (the Chuck E Cheese shootings, shootings at Columbine and Platte Canyon high schools, and Sunday’s tragedy.) Any wisdom that people have for me would be appreciated.

Someone is still interested in buying our house. Thanks to everyone who has been praying and please continue so we can move that bad boy and get to Africa!

Heidi sure does look cute when she is making Christmas cookies!

More cookies

When I said this was the year of the Christmas cookie, I wasn't joking. Marlyse and I whipped up some "Mom Bars" (remember those, college roomates??) and some of her mom's famous pumpkin cookies. They were delicious! And we had a great time baking.those are the pumpkin cookies...mmmmmmm

cookie award of the evening

I wanted to give a shout out to the cookie of the evening from our cookie-baking night. Candace's cookie wins, although it was a tough competition. And to be fair, no one knew it was a competition! Hers was a chocolate cookie with a Rolo inside and drizzled with white chocolate. Amazing . Nice work, girl.

Circling the drain

In a lost season, the Broncos put forth another shameful display of inept football. As a lifelong Broncos fan, I have been spoiled by teams that win much more than they lose. I am also spoiled by Shanahan’s record against the Raiders at 20-6. Even in lean years I could count on the Orange Crush to take it to the Raiders. This season, for no good reason, the Broncos are stinking up the place. Each time I give up on the season, which has been several times now, they win and give me hope, but soon after they dash it. I will watch a couple more games before they end the season with a 7-9 record and a high draft pick. Maybe they will hit the jackpot in the draft and have some good players for the future. Yes, there is always next year.

It is time to give a shout out to the Alma Mater. Bethel University had a great showing this fall in both Cross Country and Football. My love for CC at BU runs deep since I was a member of the team for three years. I was excited to see high finishes for both the Men and Women’s programs at the conference and regional meets. Even more, BU had a total of four All-Americans, two men and two women. That’s awesome. BU football, a more high profile sport, has been incredible. They are playing the perennial powerhouse, Mount Union, in the NCAA DIII tournament final four on Saturday. BU’s coach, Steve, is a great guy and I am glad for him and his boys. I hope they win on Saturday, but even if they do not, it has been an amazing season.

Winter has finally come to Minnesota. We got about six inches of snow on Saturday and the high temperatures are in the teens. This morning when I went out for my run, it was about 3 degrees. As we say in Minnesota, there is no poor weather, just a poor choice of clothes. We will be choosing our clothes wisely for the next couple months.

Heidi looks cute even in the many layers she wears this time of year.